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Redshift is a small program, that changes the color of your display temperature according to the day time. At night the display gets pretty red and feels softer. This way, it feels better to work in the dark. Sadly redshift is only a command line program and we all know how bad the windows command line is (compared to the linux terminal). That’s why I made this tutorial to set up redshift for Windows to use it like a normal program.

First things first. If you don’t care about your privacy and just want a quick solution to getting warm colors at night, there is a program called f.lux which is more user friendly. I recommend redshift, because it is open source, so that you don’t have to worry to much about privacy issues.

Ok, let’s get to it. Download redshift, take the last stable version, in my case it is 1.91. Then also download this small package:

[wpdm_file id=3]

After that, doubleclick the .reg file to disable gamma limitations (for more information take a look at this page). Extract the folder to where ever you want to store the program, I suggest something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Redshift, and add redshift.ico to the folder.

Also put the icon into the very same folder, you should end up with something like this:

screenshot redshift folder

Now, we create a shortcut to redshift.exe (right click -> create shortcut). With this shortcut, we can now do everything, we need to do to avoid a command line window. Right click on the shortcut and go to properties. In the tab Shortcut, you will find a text field with the label “Target”. There we can now add parameters to the execution. Here is an example what you can put there:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\redshift-1.9.1-x86_64\redshift.exe” is the path to your exe file. Make sure it has apostrophes.

-l 48.208:16.372 is the longitude and latitude of your location. In this example this would be Vienna. You can find out your location by using openstreetmap. Just press where am i? in the search box, when you are looking at the location you want. And only add 3 digits after the comma, redshift won’t work with more than that.

-t 6500K:3500K is the color temperature. the first value is for the day, the second is for the night.

-b 0.8:0.4 is the brightness. Once again, first value for day, second for night.

After you found your settings, click on change icon, and search for the icon inside your folder. For a final touch, you can also start the window minimized, so taht you don’t even see the command line.

Now you’re done. Just doubleclick the shortcut, and pin it to your taskbar.

I hope this helps to make the program more useable on Windows. If you like the program, consider donating something to Jon Lund Steffensen. You will find donation buttons on his page.

Happy to see that you found something else of your interest on my site 🙂
I highly doubt, that the shutdown-time problem is linked to redshift, this program is very lightweight. I would suggest, to take a look at the task manager, before you shut down. How much memory is in use? Maybe you’re like me having lots of tabs open in the browser, it can take some time releasing this data again, when shutting down. On the other hand, 2 to 3 minutes is way to long. The problem can occur through multiple issues. Maybe take a look at Advanced system care (http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html). It does fix a lot of stuff (I recommend to only use the free version).

What is color more optimal for eyes? I have now this config
redshift.exe” -t4500K:4500K -g 0.8 -m wingdi -v I’m looking more comfortable color//
I work at night wihout light only dark room . For dark room what color optimal?

well t4500K:4500K won’t cange the color warmth beween day and night. I’m no expert on what is the best color, but you could try t4500K:3500K… But you also need to define your latitude and longitude to have the day night effect. I’m not sure if that answers your question. If you just want one setting for day and night, I think 4500K is a good choice, maybe you could change the brightness of your screen? 🙂

Was quite a long time ago that I used redshift, so I’m not up to date. I guess the method I’m proposing here is to add all the configuration in the command for running redshift. I agree that this is not ideal, it would be cool to use a cofig file for it. Sadly I never tried that, I’m also not sure whether it is supported for windows.